Robert Hicks, Bogalusa civil rights activist, dies at age 81

Robert Hicks, a lion in the Louisiana civil rights movement whose legal victories helped topple segregation in Bogalusa and change discriminatory employment practices throughout the South, died Tuesday in his home. He was 81.

Robert Hicks

Mr. Hicks, who was born in Mississippi and moved to Bogalusa at a young age, was a member of the local NAACP and the Bogalusa Voter and Civic League. His lawsuits resulted in the desegregation of Bogalusa's public schools and the prohibition of unfair hiring tests and seniority systems at the local paper mill, owned by Crown Zellerbach Corp.

The latter case, which led to Mr. Hicks becoming the company's first black supervisor and which opened doors for black women, served as a model for similar discrimination cases in Louisiana and throughout the South.

Mr. Hicks was the youngest of three children born to Quitman and Maybell Hicks in 1929. He graduated from Central Memorial High School, where he played on the school's state champion football team. He later played offensive guard on The Bushmen, an all-black semi-pro team.

Mr. Hicks and his wife, Valeria, had six children during their 62-year union. With his wife, Mr. Hicks traveled the country, spreading the word about the conditions for black people in the South and encouraging people to travel to Bogalusa and other Southern cities to campaign for civil rights.

One of those civil rights workers, Peter Jan Honigsberg, said the bravery of men like Mr. Hicks most impressed him about the movement. Honigsberg wrote his memoir, "Crossing Border Street," about his experience volunteering in Bogalusa in the summers of 1966 and 1967.

"Even today I still think of him," he said. "He was determined to do what he had to do to change the South."

Mr. Hicks began his civil rights work as a member of the local chapter of the NAACP before working with the Voter and Civic League. He helped conduct daily marches to protest racial discrimination by merchants and city government in a crusade that thrust Bogalusa into the national spotlight.

The Hicks family opened their home to white civil rights workers and national figures such as entertainer Dick Gregory and Congress of Racial Equality head James Farmer. Because of that, the family was targeted by the Ku Klux Klan, which in turn motivated the formation of the Deacons for Defense and Justice, an armed band of African-American men who stood guard at the Hicks' home and protected civil rights workers in the city. The 2003 Showtime movie "Deacons for Defense" was loosely based on the group.

Mr. Hicks filed a landmark lawsuit against the city and police department of Bogalusa, obtaining a federal court order requiring the police to protect protest marchers, and a lawsuit that overturned officials' refusals to allow protest marches.

In 1967, Mr. Hicks filed a suit against the secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing, which resulted in the prohibition of the construction of public housing in segregated neighborhoods in Bogalusa.

Mr. Hicks began working at Crown Zellerbach at a time when few black people were employed there and eventually he served as president of the Brotherhood of Pulp, Sulphite and Paper Mill Workers. After fighting Crown Zellerbach for years in federal court, Mr. Hicks became the company's first African-American supervisor, a position he held until his retirement.